Fashionably weird
Bow tie wearers proudly carry on, despite the look’s fading appeal
By George Barnes TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
gbarnes@telegram.com
Are they saying C. Everett Koop, Orville Redenbacher, James Bond and Boo Boo Bear are weird just because they wear bow ties?
OK, so bow tie wearers Pee-wee Herman, maybe, Jerry Lewis, likely, and Dagwood Bumstead, obviously, are a little on the strange side, but what about Harry Truman, Winston Churchill and sex researcher Alfred Kinsey? Those guys were bow tie wearers and were pretty cool.
But a study by HCD Research, a media research company, has some fairly difficult-to-swallow survey results, at least for bow tie wearers. It found people perceive bow tie wearers as a little weird, more likely to be employed as a store clerk, a Republican and older than 36. They’re also less wanted as a friend or co-worker than people who wear neckties or don’t wear ties at all.
The good news for bow tie guys is people think they are smarter than the necktie/no tie people, and fewer women than men surveyed think they’re weird.
Will the research stop bow tie aficionados? Television commentator Tucker Carlson no longer wears his signature bow ties and the MIT beaver mascot is now going tieless, but Joe Plaud remains a big fan. So do Peter Sargent and Andrew Myers.
Local bow tie wearers seem to disprove HCD’s research, at least when it comes to employment, level of weirdness and politics.
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Peter Sargent also extols the cleanliness virtue of bow ties. An engaging and dapper bow tie wearing lawyer from Gardner, he is far from dull or weird. He said he began wearing bow ties when he decided his life’s work as a lawyer would require him to be smartly dressed.
“Bow ties, for starters, are very classy looking,” he said. “Plus you can’t get your bow tie in your soup the way you can with what is called the four-in-hand tie.”
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Mr. Sargent is not at all afraid of embracing styles that are not supported by a majority in the popular culture. He wears dress hats, a style more common in the 1950s and early ’60s.
“I’m thinking of getting a kilt after the first of the year,” he said. “It’s long been my perception that kilts are the next big thing after tattoos and body piercings.”
How a jury might view Mr. Sargent wearing a kilt in court is still to be seen, but bow ties pass muster as several judges locally wear them. Mr. Sargent believes that if you walk out of your house uncomfortable with what you are wearing, it will show. With confidence, you can easily sport bow ties, kilts or a smart-looking Fairfax Hamburg fedora.
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Bow ties aren’t for everyone, but that’s fine with bow tie wearers. They aren’t looking to follow the crowd.
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